I believe these are medals issued to Gallaghers mother. There could be another Edith Annie Gallagher but it is consistant with the work she did during the war noted here: http://tighar.org/wiki/Gerald_Gallagher

I personally don't have time to research it, but this could be a lead to what happend to "Gallagher's Effects" if soneone else in the forum wants to roll with it. It's a very long shot since we would have to assume that Gallagher's Effects were shipped to his mother and that his items were eventually "disposed of" in the same manner as these medals (assuming they belonged to his mother)....and the successive owners of these medals since her death in 1981 can be traced.

I e-mailed the auction house to find out if they had a record of the seller. They confirmed that they did, but did not provide the information to me. They said they would notify the seller, but I never received any feedback.

I found a web site that has a listing, with photographs, of the ships operated by the W. R. C. Carpenter Shipping Company in 1945. I cannot say it's all inclusive but from the way the site is constructed it seems to be accurate. Go here:

The SS Salamaua/Lautoka is a real possibility. She did RAN service in WWII and made at least one trip to the Med, no doubt through the Suez Canal. I did find a site that says her movement logbook is held by the AU Nat'l Archives but is not on-line. It's here:

Perhaps one of our Aussie members could find and review the logbook and see if she made a trip to the UK in 1945 or early '46.

There are other ships in operation in 1945 but they seem too small for a voyage of that length.

There may be other sources out there; this is just what came up on Google.

What ever the ship, it would have had to clear UK Customs when it docked. A copy of the passenger/cargo manifest would be provided to Customs. That manifest would almost certainly have the name of the company or agency WRC Carpenter consigned the cargo to for final delivery, or in the case of the missing possessions, the name of the person to be contacted when the 4 trunks were available for pickup. This may give us a starting point for Gallagher's descendants to start investigating, if they're still interested. In any case in has the potential to uncover more information.

I found a web site that has a listing, with photographs, of the ships operated by the W. R. C. Carpenter Shipping Company in 1945. I cannot say it's all inclusive but from the way the site is constructed it seems to be accurate.

Good detective work!

But we don't know that the Shipping Company necessarily delivered all of its shipments by itself.

They may have gone to a central port and handed things over to an intermediary that would complete the shipment to England.

(I'm totally ignorant of how these things worked in reality--this is just imagination in play.)

Quote

This may give us a starting point for Gallagher's descendants to start investigating, if they're still interested.

Gallagher died childless, so far as we know.

We have been in touch with his nephew.

His nephew knows the rest of the family.

Dunno whether more facts about the shipping method is going to change the fact that the nephew could not turn up any of the material or any history of the material by talking with the members of GG's family.

But we don't know that the Shipping Company necessarily delivered all of its shipments by itself.

They may have gone to a central port and handed things over to an intermediary that would complete the shipment to England.

All true, but the Suva did make a voyage to London in 1944, so there's a history of WRC Carpenter ship(s) making that trip. The Salamaua was a more modern ship than the Suva. Perhaps the Salamaua took over that route.

If the manifest could be found it may have information that would jog the family's memory.

"Gerald's mother asked that his personal effects be returned to a Miss. Clancy [Julie Marie Clancy] who was her sister and lived at Clanmere, Graham Road, Malvern, Worcester, England. Edith Gallagher had been engaged in war work in London and apparently considered the Malvern address to be more permanent than her own."

The rest of the information is in "Gerald Gallagher's Effects." Items 30 and 31 on that list are the ones that hold the most promise, in my view.

It contains scans of the Australian WWII Merchant Ship Movement Records cards. I have been through most of these, looking specifically vessels for which the listed owner is W R Carpenter & Co, or a subsidiary. You might like to download File 37 Lake Ormoc to Loatta and view the cards for Carpenter's vessel LANSING (two cards).

This ship arrived in Suva Port in the evening of 6th August 1945 - a significant day in the war, as any Hiroshima schoolkid would tell you. The next day, the 7th August 1945, the WPHC reportedly asked Carpenter's to pick up Gallagher's trunks of belongings. As I can't locate any other Carpenter's vessel anywhere near Fiji at the time, I remain convinced that the WPHC intended for the shipment to leave on the Lansing.

So where did the Lansing go, and when? Sadly, Lansing's arrival in Suva is the last movement in the record set for that vessel. I can demonstrate from other sources that the Lansing went to Vancouver. But I don't know when, or if she went directly, or via other ports (eg San Francisco and San Pedro, both copra trading ports in the US, feature in Lansing's trans-pacific movement history).

This site has some history on the Lansing (launched as the British Queen in 1890).

For those wondering what WWII Merchant Ship Movement Records cards are, they are the product of a wartime initiative to protect British and allied merchant shipping from prying enemy eyes. I don't really know how it worked, but basically ships did not carry (among other records) information regarding their movement history. So ship movement records were kept at home. These are Australia's records. The UK has theirs digitised (pay to view). New Zealand still keeps their cards, with some content available on an internet database. Canada had a set, but destroyed them intentionally in the 1950s or thereabouts, citing national security concerns.

I have brought the Lansing to the attention of Tighar HQ quite some time ago, but as I've heard nothing further, I assume there was nothing further to be made of it.

Looks like she made a trip to the US west coast (San Pedro and San Francisco) Sep - Nov '44, came back to Suva in Dec, made a voyage Brisbane - Sydney - Suva then went inactive (for maintenance ?). Don't know what those three lines in the remarks column mean. Anyway, one more round robin trip before back to Suva on 6 Aug.

Since she was sold to China Trading Corp. in '46, I wonder if this was her last trip for Carpenter's. This would explain why it's the last entry on the second card.

Carpenter's records would have had a date for the sale but they were likely lost in the fire.

Archives of W R Carpenter & Co Ltd, Tulagi Branch, in DunedinWhen war came to the British Solomon Islands Protectorate in early 1942, the'commercials,' as businesses were called, left Tulagi, the prewar capital,to local looters and the invading Japanese. In the turmoil, records,including some government ones, were lost or destroyed. The first smallgroup of civilians to return to the Solomons after the war had variouscommissions from business interests and individuals. The shipping company,W.R. Carpenter, asked Tom Elkington, labour recruiter and son of the formerowners of Elkington's Hotel in Tulagi, to look for their safe in Tulagi andgave him the key. Tom found the safe, sent back to Sydney the materialCarpenter wanted and threw to one side old documents that were to be burned.They never did get burned; they provided a few laughs for Tom who knew allthe characters mentioned in the letters and branch reports. Over the years,he all but forgot the papers, in a box stowed away. Then a historian, JudyBennett, turned up at Tulagi in the mid 1970s to talk with Tom. He allowedher to read the papers and she used them in her Wealth of the Solomons: ahistory of a Pacific Archipelago, 1800-1978. A few years later, TomElkington with his humour and his vast store of knowledge of the colonialSolomons died in Brisbane. Fittingly, his ashes were later scattered atTulagi by his widow, Naysa. She gave the Carpenter papers to Judy Bennett.With the permission of Devereau Holdings, the successors of W R Carpenter &Co Ltd, Dr Bennett kindly allowed the Bureau to film the Tulagi Brancharchives.

Thanks to Judy Bennett, History Department, Otago University, for thesubstance of this report

Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, Australian National UniversityPacific Manuscripts BureauAustralian National UniversityAddress Room 7012, Coombs Building, Research School of Pacific and AsianStudies, The Australian National University, CanberraPostal Address PMB, RSPAS, Australian National University, ACT 0200Telephone (02) 6249-2521Fax (02) 6249-0198Email pambu@coombs.anu.edu.auURL http://rspas.anu.edu.au/pambu/

Date Range: 1925 - 1932Description: * Unpublished manuscript (c.1980s) by Ray Melrose "Camohe"in-house company history from 1860s-1980s.* On microfilm are papers which were retained by an employee of thecompany - letters and branch reports.* Some material with Dr Judy Bennett (NZ historian), which has beenmicrofilmed.* Ewan Maidment of Pacific Manuscripts believes that there are moresurviving records of the company, and is negotiating with its successor,Devereau Holdings for these to be archived.Quantity: 1 reel of microfilmAccess: Access through PMB

INTERESTING CONNECTION WITH HARRY MAUDE:

PACIFIC MANUSCRIPTS BUREAU:

As a preliminary to the formation of the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau in 1968,Harry Maude set out a kind of manifesto in the form of a taxonomy of Pacificarchives, a proportion of which the Bureau would attempt to capture onmicrofilm over the following years. ("The Documentary Basis for PacificStudies: a report on progress and desiderata", 1967) Maude distinguished twomajor classes of archives: (a) official colonial government records -classified in to the 8 metropolitan colonial powers which had imperial andeconomic interests in the Pacific; and (b) unofficial manuscript materialwhich he considered to be "probably of considerably greater importance"(p.16) consisting of:

The greatest concentration of manuscript material Maude pointed out was tobe found in the islands themselves. He identified four main categories:

1. territorial and local government records (Note subsequent transfer ofrecords of WPHC and NHBS from Suva to London.)

2. mission records

3. trading and plantation material

4. private manuscripts

Pambu became very active and successful in copying mission and personalpapers. Pambu also copied some government papers, particularly in Tonga, butthis area was largely beyond its sphere of authority. In the commercialsphere, Pambu organised a massive project copying logs of American whalersoperating in the Pacific out of New England, however apart from copyingrecords of some Burns Philp branches in Fiji and a few plantation records,Pambu was not terribly successful in the fields of trading and plantationrecords. Maude was well aware of the problems associated with preservingbusiness archives: "It is particularly difficult to persuade business firms(including planters) to permit their books and correspondence to bepreserved in archives, or even to preserve them in their own custody" (p.36)A friend of Maude's, the General Manager of Morris, Hedstrom & Co, awell-known island trading firm, refused to comply with Maude's request totransfer the company's records into archival custody following take over byW R Carpenter & Co, on the contrary, he personally supervised the burning ofthe company's archives. I have persistently tried to track down survivingrecords of W R Carpenter & Co over the last 18 months, but there is everyindication that nothing has survived in either Sydney or Suva. JudithBennett, the Solomon Islands historian, was given a small batch ofCarpenters, Tulagi Branch, archives which had been rescued from a safe amongthe ruins of the Branch office after the War. These may well be the onlysurviving records of that company.

Maude wrote that "if the commercial history of the area is...to be writtenan urgent and concerted attempt will have to be made by the Pacific ResearchLibraries to obtain and preserve every scrap of source material that stillremains undestroyed." (p.37) There is an elaborate network of Pacificresearch libraries: at least four in New Zealand, three in Australia, two inthe United States, the USP in Suva, the UPNG in Port Moresby and, to alesser extent, the Université Française du Pacifique in Papeete and Noumea.Efforts were made, at least in Australia and New Zealand, and somerelatively strong archives of Australian and New Zealand firms which haveoperated in the Pacific are in custody. The archives of Burns Philp & Co areintact (at the Noel Butlin Archives Centre at the ANU and at the BridgeStreet Head Office of the firm) but they include only patchy series ofBranch correspondence. The CSR Ltd archives (also at the Noel ButlinArchives Centre) are probably strongest Pacific commercial archives,documenting in detail the whole of the company's operations in Fiji. Howeverthe correspondence between the Fiji mills and head office to 1948 is held indelicate presscopy letterbooks which have a relatively short lifeexpectancy.

I contacted them on September 25, 2000 and spoke with a gentleman namedDaniel Vilsoni. I also emailed them as follows:

Dear Daniel,

After speaking with you today I send you this fax in order to obtaininformation in regards to a shipment handled by W.R. Carpenter Co. in 1945.

A relative of mine worked for the West Pacific High commission and died inthe Pacific. His personal effects (of which I have a detailed list) weresupposedly shipped (or at least requested to be shipped to a U.K. address.

I include the telegram from the Western Pacific High Commission to W.R.Carpenter Co. of August 7, 1945. This telegram is the last that has beenheard of these 4 trunks of personal effects of Gerald Gallagher.

Can you please check your archives and advise if indeed this was shipped(consigned to who in the U.K.?) and send me copies of any relevant paperworkthat you may have in regards to this consignement.

Sincerely Yours,

Gerard Gallagher

This is the information that I can share with you. I never heard back fromDaniel or the company.

They also owned some sea going vessels:

In 1934, W.R.Carpenter & Co. acquired two motor vessels, each of 6,800 tonsgross and renamed them Rabaul and Salamaua registering them both in SuvaFiji. At the time, they carried Australian and British Deck and EngineerOfficers and a crew of native Fijians. They commenced a service betweenAustralia Britain and Europe, including calls at Rabaul and other South SeaIsland ports, running a ten weekly service carrying wool, copra, and otherproduce. It was the first privately owned shipping line operating betweenAustralia and England.

Last but not least:

Duranbah. Steel steamship, 284 tons. Built England, 1905. Lbd 130 x 23.1 x9.2 ft. Sold on arrival in Australia to N.C.S.N.Co.; to W.R. Carpenter Co.in 1922. Believed captured by the Japanese in WW2.

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